Telepresence started out pretty much as video conferencing, but has already expanded far beyond that and is now beginning to use robots as surrogates for telepresence operations. The combination of robotic movement and sensors with ever advancing telecom ability holds great promise for tele-commuting jobs and remote operations and interactions in many forms. As robotic dexterity and sensor capability increase on one end of the telepresence and augmented reality and haptic and visual feedback capability increase on the other end, telepresence utility will increase.

Be two places at once with QA, the new telepresence robot from Anybots. Enjoy complete freedom to move fluidly and interact with others in a remote location from the ease of your home or office.

QA operates simply, cleanly, and quietly while still giving you a full physical presence. It allows you to see and be seen, talk and listen, and collaborate in ways and places never before possible.

Robots in Development: Dexter & Monty

Dexter has a different, more human-like body on which ZMP control does not work. Its joints, driven by air cylinders, are springy and flexible like human muscle. There are no stable postures that it can be put in where it can balance without active feedback, so it has to constantly adjust based on its sense of balance — the robot equivalent of your inner ear. It walks and balances the same way humans do, even wearing the same shoes humans wear.

You know you live in a crazy age when blockbuster movies look like they might come true. Next month marks the debut of the scifi film Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis and adapted from Robert Vendetti’s comic series of the same name. The movie follows a police officer who lives in a future where everyone (including him) is a remote controlled android called a surrogate. You can feel everything that this robot does, but without any worries about danger. Pretty far-fetched, right?

Called the Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display, the specially calibrated ultrasound emitter gives you the impression of physical pressure at the location of a holographic object. Because you aren’t actually touching the hologram, there’s no decrease in the quality of the image. Unlike a traditional speaker, the ultrasound can be focused at a particular location, so you only feel pressure at a certain point. This precision allows AUTD to let you feel individual drops of virtual rain, a bouncing ball, or even a tiny animal running across your palm.